15th February 1946 was the day I first inhaled Scottish air and although I have been privileged to travel around on holiday, my roots are firmly embedded in the north east of Scotland. On my travels I have visited all the UK countries plus Spain Italy, China, Philippines, America, France and the Canary Islands, some of them several times. Part of the joy of growing older is interacting with grandchildren and along with my wife Mary we are grandparents to six beautiful children, born to our three sons and their wives. Family is a high priority, having spent many years in leadership, when I have to admit church and family were sometimes in the wrong order. God is gracious and in spite of me getting it wrong many a time, all my family are serving the Lord full time, two at home and one in the Philippines. Although I am no longer in church leadership, my local church is still close to my heart, as is the very successful Power House Kids Club that I am involved in. Like many fisher boys in this area in my youth I lived for the day I would leave school and go to sea; that was the day I was fifteen, and for eight years of my life I experienced life as a deep sea fisherman. Life took an unexpected turn and I bought a shop and for around fifteen years I was in the retail business. For the past twelve years I have worked with a Local Authority Social Work Department as Homecare Manager. The Homecare department is responsible for providing Homecarers (Care givers) to enable older people with physical and often mental illness to live in their own homes. When time permits I love to write and find it very relaxing. During the writing course that I did, I had to submit articles as part of the course work; I quickly took back the cost of the course in submissions. (Which the course guaranteed) Unfortunately since then I have hardly submitted any articles due to work pressure. Email: david.ritchie@onetel.net